The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-18

right against wrong, or the reclamation OF
inebrates or, like the score of mutual
benefit societies called by different names,
that provide temporary relief for widows
and orphans, ard for men incapacitated by
sickness or accident from earning a livell-
hood. Had it not been for the large num-
ber of secret labor organizations in this
country monopoly would long ago have.
under its ponderouS wheels, ground the
laboring classes into an intolerable
serVltuue The men who want the
whole earth to themselves would have
got it before this, had it not been for the
banding together of great secret organiza-
cations. And, while we deplore many things
that have been done by them, their exist
sphere distinctly pointed out by the provi-
dence of God. Such organizations are try
ing to dismiss from their association all
members i'll favor of anarchy and social
chaos. They will gradually cease anything
like tyranny over their members and will
forbid violent interference with any mans
work, whether he belongs to their union or
is outside of it, and will declare their disgust
with any such rule as that passed in Eng
land by the Manchester Bricklayers' AsSo-
citation, which says any man found running
or working beyond regular speed shall be
fined two shillings and sixpence for the
first offense, five shillingS for the
second, ten shillingS for the
third and if still persisting shall be dealt with
as the committee think proper There are
secret societies in our colleges that have let
ters of the Greek alphabet for their nomen-
clature, and their members are at the very
front in scholarship and irreproachable in
morals, while there are others the scene of
carousal, and they gamble, and they drink,
and they graduate knowing hundred times
more about sin than they do of geometry
and Sophocles. In other words secret socie-
ties, like individuals, are good or bad are
the means of moral health or of temporal
and eternal damnatior. All good people
recognize the vice of slandering an indi-
vidual, but many do not see the sin of
Slandering an organization
There are old secret societies in this and
other countries, some of them centuries old,
which have been widely denounced rs inn
moral and damaging in their influence, yet
| have hundreds of personal friends who
belong TO them, friends who are conse-
Grated TO God, pillars i'll the church, faithful
in all relations of life examples OF virtue
and pety. They are the kind of friends
whom | would have for my executors if
am SO happy as to leave anything for my
household at the time of decease, and they
are the men whom | would have carry me
out to the last sleep when | am dead. You
cannot make me believe that they would
belong to bad institutions. They are the
men who would stamp on anything iniqui-
tous, and | would certainly rather take
their testimony in regard to such societies
than the testimony of those who, having
been sworn in as members, by their assault
upon the society confess themselves per
jurors. One of these secret societies gave for
the relief of the sick in 1873 in this country
81, 400, ,274 Some Of these societies have
poured q very heaven of sunshine and bene-
dietion into the home of suffering. Several
of them are founded on fidelity to good
citizenship and the Bible | have never
taken one of their degrees. They might
give me the grip a thousand times, and |
would not recognize it. | am ignorant of
their pass words, and must judge entirely
from the outside. But Christ has given us
a rule by which we may judge not only all
individuals but all societies, secret and
open "By their fruits ye shall know
them" Bad societies make bad men. Good
societies make good men. A bad man will
not stay in a good society. A good man
will not stay in bad society. Then try all
secret societies by two or three rules.
Test the first: Their influence on home if
you have a home. That wife soon loses her
influence over her husband who nervously
and foolishly looks upon all evening alb
sence as an assault on domesticity How
are the great enterprises of reform, and art,
and literature, and beneticence and public
veal to be carried on if every man is to have
his world bounded on one side by his front
door step, and on the other side by his back
window, knowing nothing higher than his
own attic or lower than his own cellar.
That wife who becomes jealous of her hus-
bands attention to art or literature or re-
ligion or charity is breaking her own sceptre
of conjugal power. ! know an instance
where a wife thought that her husband was
giving too many nights TO Christian service,
to charitable service, to prayer meetings.
and TO religious convocation. She system
atcally decOyed him away until now he at
tends no church, waits upon no charitable
institution, and is on a rapid way TO de
struction, his morals gone, his money gone
and fear his soul gone. Let any Christian
wife rejoice when her husband consecrates
evenings TO the service of humanity, and Of
God, or charity, or art, or anything elevat-
ing
But let no man sacrifice home-life to Sc
cret society life, az many do. can point
out to YOU great many names of men who
are guilty OF this sacrilege They are rs
genial as angels at the society room, and as
ugly as sin at home They are generous on
ali subjects of wine suppers, yachts and fast
horses. but they are stingy about the wives
dresses and the children's shoes That man
has made that, which might he O healthful
influence. usurper Of his affections and he
has married it. and he is guilty of moral
bipamv. Under this process, the wife, what
ever her features become uninteresting and
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